The Arnold Machin (JD Wetherspoon), Newcastle Under Lyme Central, Newcastle under Lyme

This former post office has a pleasing exterior ,while inside this is one of the smaller 'spoons done out in the usual identikit fashion .There is a decent outside terrace,and large windows allow in a lot of light.The bar runs down part of the right wall with two banks of 5 handpumps with the regular dull ales taking up 6 pumps and guests on my brief visit were Pheasantry Vulcan Blue Steel,Exe Valley Devon Glory,Coach House Spring Ale and a very decent Nottingham Rock MILD.A functional pub ,fairly typical of the chain.

This is a JDW set in an old Post Office building. It's a large rectangular place with the bar roughly in the middle and the rest divided into smaller areas. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which had one unused, the JDW Trio Of Doom and the GK beers doubled up. Happily the remaining four were all Locale, Springhead Roaring Meg, Wincle Burke's Special, Burton Bridge Festival and Beartown Brown Bear. I went for the Roaring Meg (£2.55) which was in excellent nick. This sounds expensive for a Spoons but it's a super premium guest. The standard guest price here is £2.25. This seemed like a fairly decent Spoons to me. I returned here later to get something to eat and the Beef and Ale pie was very good apart from having too much pastry and Doom Bore being the "Ale" used. The Roaring Meg remained excellent.

Amazingly I found this to be quite good with a varied selection of beer styles available. Friendly staff. Maybe I hit it on a good day. Side beer terrace overlooks a nice public garden area. No idea about the food though as I wouldn't eat in any Spoons.